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After Installation

Verify the installation

The last step of every run checks the things that would otherwise fail silently:

Check What it confirms
services Every expected service is running on each server.
containers The portal and Vault containers are running on the controller.
agent The controller can reach each node's agent.
backfill Each node finished enrolling with the controller.
prometheus The controller can query metrics for each node.
borg Each node can reach its site's backup server.
ssh The controller can reach the nodes and registry over SSH.
portal Each node can reach the portal.
acme_backend Each node can reach the controller's certificate service.
lb_domain The controller has validated each new availability zone's load balancer domain.
dns Every nameserver serves the customer zone.
pdns_api The PowerDNS API is answering.
dns_replication Each follower nameserver is replicating from the primary.

You can run the checks on their own at any time:

make validate ENV=prod

To skip a check, pass its name to --skip-tags, for example make validate ENV=prod ARGS='--skip-tags borg'.

Note

The controller validates load balancer domains in the background, a few minutes after they are created. If lb_domain reports that the result isn't available yet, wait a few minutes and run it again:

make site ENV=prod ARGS='--tags lb_domain'

Log in

Open https://<cs_portal_domain> and log in with cs_admin_email and cs_admin_password.

The installer has already created your locations, availability zones, nodes, load balancers, a default user group, and a starter set of products. Next:

Keep your secrets safe

Store a copy of your encrypted secrets.yml and its vault password somewhere outside your control machine. You need the same secret_key_base to restore a controller database backup or to add regions later.

The controller's Vault unseal keys are stored on the controller itself, under /etc/computestacks/.vault-bootstrap/. Protect root access to the controller accordingly.

Back up the controller database

Customer volumes are backed up to your backup servers, but nothing backs up the controller's own database automatically. Schedule the built-in backup command on the controller, for example with a daily cron entry or systemd timer:

cstacks database-backup

It writes a compressed dump to /var/lib/computestacks/backups/. Copy those files off the controller regularly.

To restore a backup, on the controller as root:

cstacks stop
dropdb cloudportal && createdb -O computestacks cloudportal
zcat /var/lib/computestacks/backups/cloudportal-<stamp>.sql.gz | psql cloudportal
cstacks run

Warning

A backup can only be restored with the same secret_key_base it was taken under. Keep your secrets.yml with your backups.

The cstacks command

The installer adds a cstacks command to the controller for day-to-day operation:

Command Purpose
cstacks run, cstacks stop Start or stop the controller.
cstacks upgrade Back up the database, pull the latest patch release, migrate, and restart.
cstacks database-backup Back up the controller database.
cstacks logs, cstacks tail-logs Show or follow the controller's logs.
cstacks console Open a Rails console in the controller container.
cstacks test Test the controller's connections to each node: Docker, SSH, and the agent.

Next steps